The field of the invention is measuring tapes and the invention relates more particularly to the construction of the housing of measuring tapes of the type which contain a return spring.
The most common housings for measuring tapes have two half housings which each have a wall extending to the midsection of the housing. This forces the manufacturer to wind the spring and the tape on the slotted pin in the center of the housing at an angle. This results in a hazardous assembly operation which is both unnecessarily slow and the cause of some injury to assembling personnel.
Many construction of measuring tapes are known. U.S. Pat. No. 1,988,428 shows a measuring tape held in a housing with no return spring but a confining belt is used to hold the reel of tape in any position. U.S. Pat. No. 2,172,043 shows a spring reel tape measure which has a base with an upwardly extending side wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,073,544 shows a tape which converts to a circular measuring member after it has been withdrawn from its container. U.S. Pat. No. 3,164,907 shows a tape housing with a novel method of holding the tape in any desired degree of extension as does U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,112. Lastly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,316 shows a hinge construction of a housing for measuring tape.
None of the above designs provides a safe and efficient method for winding the spring and tape into the housing and thus, a better design is needed.